Summary
Despite Elon Musk’s claims of “maximal transparency,” the Trump administration now argues that records from DOGE are exempt from Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.
A court filing states DOGE, rebranded from the U.S. Digital Service, is a “free-standing component” of the Executive Office of the President and falls under the Presidential Records Act.
Watchdog groups have sued, arguing that DOGE’s activities, which involve sweeping access to federal agencies, must be publicly accessible.
Words and law don’t work with them.
DOGE isn’t breaking the law here, they’re abusing loopholes. We have to acknowledge the law isn’t working for us and shut the loopholes.
It’s not even loopholes, it’s just farce. Substitute in fascist for anti-Semite. The only difference here is that the judges that matter are going to play along with the wordplay.
“Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.” -Jean Paul Sartre
You can dislike what they’re saying, that doesn’t mean it isn’t true.